[LOCAL TALENT]

After obtaining a degree in computer information systems and working in the industry, Cindy Bullard felt called to honor her desire to teach. She enrolled in graduate school at UNCG and landed a job at Kernodle Middle School as an emergency hire in a math and science position, where’s she’s taught since 2001. Bullard realized she preferred teaching science and now teaches it to 6 th graders. It’s a pivotal age to engage with girls; 6 th grade is when they tend to disengage with science, she said. Bullard’s work counteracts that trend through the extracurricular Girls in Science Club and for all her students through a Harry Potter curriculum. Students are able to grasp challenging physics concepts more easily and engage more readily as they explore magical elements from the wildly popular series. Her students learn to estimate and measure the volume of a cauldron, use a handheld GPS as a magical map and mimic flying broomsticks through magnets and film canister rockets.

Her students aren’t the only ones who appreciate her work: the NC Science Teachers Association recently gave her its Distinguished Services in Science Education Award, and she’s the only middle school teacher in the state who received it.

Like her students, Bullard loves fantasy.

She is writing a seven-part series about Irish fairies incorporating real-world phenomena. The Circle, the first book, was published in June.

Bullard, now an adjunct teaching graduate and undergraduate students at UNCG, was recently accepted into the school’s doctoral program and will begin in the summer.

Contact Cindy at cindy@cindycipriano.com, visit thesidheseries.com or find The Circle on Amazon. !